Canterbury, Your Place, Your Stories

September 4, 2010 – 4:36am: Cat awakes us… probably cold and wants to get in the bed… Ohh, another coal train rumbling by… but the noise seems to come from all around us? No…. It’s an earthquake… 5 Seconds… It’s a strong earthquake… 10 seconds… Right, time to hunker down… 20 Seconds… Shit, this must be that big one that… 30 Seconds… I’m just waiting for the walls and roof to cave in… 40 seconds… OMG when will this stop… this is it… our time is up… I love you darling… 45 seconds… OK it’s stopped moving… We made it through… But it’s still rumbling below us… Hang on, we don’t normally get big quakes? If that is what we got subjected to then someone else, probably Wellington, has just got a barrelling. I hope everyone is alright… Luckily everyone is OK… And then came February 22, 12:51pm…

Our Goal

The earthquakes that struck Canterbury in 2010 and 2011 are among the most significant events in New Zealand history. QuakeStories is a place to share your stories of these and other New Zealand quakes (Seddon, 2013; Kaikōura, 2016), how they affected you - wherever you live, the aftermath and the ongoing story of the rebuilding. It will become a record for future generations, one that will continue to grow long after the quakes stop being news.